Lagos targets 25,000 undergraduates for 2018 RSW programme

The Lagos State Government will enroll 25,000 students from across eight tertiary institutions in the state for Ready Set Work (RSW) programme this year.

It will also engage 750 facilitators to train the participants at the three dedicated centres of the programme.

The Special Adviser to the state Governor on Education, Mr. Obafela Bank-Olemoh, disclosed this recently at a launch of the RSW Faculty in Victoria Island, Lagos.

RSW is a state’s government entrepreneurship and employability initiative designed to hone knowledge, skills and attitudes of undergraduates from both public and private higher institutions in the state ahead of their graduation.

The yearly 13-weekend intensive training programme with many private companies as partners, has entered its third edition this year, producing about 2,500 alumni so far from across the participating institutions, which include University of Lagos, Akoka; Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo;

Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu; Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, AOCOED, Ijanikin; Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Epe, MOCPED and the Lagos College of Heath Technology, Yaba.

The remaining two schools are Caleb University, Imota and Yaba College of Technology which joined this year.

Speaking further, Bank-Olemoh explained that while 5,000 from the total figure would be the final year students from all the participating schools irrespective of their courses of study, the rest would be their immediate juniors.

He noted that the first category would undertake their studies in class at the three dedicated centres-UNILAG, LASU and LASPOTECH-with facilitators and mentors tutoring them basically on things outside academic knowledge while the second category would be through what he called online academy and that the class would start in July.

He explained that, though, the programme was tuition-free and voluntary, participants must have to demonstrate seriousness and entrepreneurship spirit and pass through rigorous selective process to be successful for enrollment, as well as graduating.

He disclosed that only about 5,000 made the list last year in both categories with a total of 118 volunteer facilitators trained them at all the three centres.

“But now that we’re targeting 25,000 participants this year in response to the increasing demand from students and their parents to be part of the programme due to it high impact on those who had participated, we’re also expected to have 750 facilitators in all to take care of the upsurge.

“So, with the official launch of the faculty portal for this year, we are expecting more facilitators who are successful professionals and entrepreneurs in their various fields to partner the state government on the scheme by volunteering their services to train the students as their own contributions to impact the youth and the society,” he explained.

Bank-Olemoh said the results of students who had passed through the scheme was great even as scores of them shared their experiences and testimonies at the launch.

Also speaking in a sideline, the Vice-Chancellor of LASU, Prof Olanrewaju Fagbohun, who is one of the consistent mentors in the programme urged other state governments to emulate the scheme so as to jointly tackle the high rate of youth unemployment in the country.

He said of a true, the school could not all alone teach the students all that required to make great success in life and in careers, hence the importance of schools keying into the scheme to further equip their students for outside world ahead of graduation.